GoDaddy went offline temporarily today due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack by a member of Anonymous.

Twitter user @AnonymousOwn3r launched the DDoS attack today against GoDaddy, which is an Internet domain registrar and Web hosting company. A DDoS attack is when a server receives an overwhelming amount of communication that it cannot tend to, and it can be carried out using as little as 50 computers.

Due to the name of the Twitter user, many believed the hacker group Anonymous was collectively to blame. However, Anonymous distanced itself from @AnonymousOwn3r in the following Tweet:

Please redirect your godaddy hate to @AnonymousOwn3r says is the 'leader' of Anonymous. #derp Have #lulz with that.

GoDaddy, aware of the situation earlier today after receiving floods of messages from users, quickly addressed the situation. It worked on the problem throughout the day, apologizing to customers and offering Twitter updates via @GoDaddy. The most recent Twitter update stated that things were getting back to normal around 4:30 p.m. PST:

We're still working. Getting closer to normal. Thanks for all your patience and understanding.

Why did @AnonymousOwn3r carry out the attack? The exact reason remains unknown, but a Twitter update from the user reveals a small piece of the puzzle (misspellings kept for authenticity's sake):

I'm taking godaddy down bacause well i'd like to test how the cyber security is safe and for more reasons that i can not talk now.

GoDaddy hosts over 5 million websites. Such a simple attack really shouldn't have knocked it offline so easily, but more details will likely appear as the investigation rolls on.

Is DDoS actually freedom of speech? Is taking down another website actually stifling freedom of speech?

speechnoun1. the faculty or power of speaking; oral communication; ability to express one's thoughts and emotions by speech sounds and gesture: Losing her speech made her feel isolated from humanity.2. the act of speaking: He expresses himself better in speech than in writing.3. something that is spoken; an utterance, remark, or declaration: We waited for some speech that would indicate her true feelings.4. a form of communication in spoken language, made by a speaker before an audience for a given purpose: a fiery speech.5. any single utterance of an actor in the course of a play, motion picture, etc.

We should be speaking more and getting our points across. At some point we crossed the line between speaking about things and just being destructive to make our points. DDoS is wrong just like keying a word into the side of someone's car. This is destruction of property and the person harmed has rights too.

BTW. Lookup slander which could cause legal issues even if you don't physically damage someone's property.